Waiting for the Truth
by moonracoon99
Summary: Lily waits up for the Marauders one night. Will they reveal their secret? One-shot. Slightly OOC. Rated K for slightest bit of cursing and some injuries. Also the tiniest bit of fluff at the end. My first FanFiction! Please R&R. Disclaimer: All characters and setting belong to J.K. Rowling


**Hey everyone! This is my first fanfic, so go easy on me! But please, review when you're done reading, and constructive criticism is definitely appreciated. By the way...this story is placed during Lily and James' seventh year. They haven't started dating-yet-but according to J.K. Rowling, they start going out sometime later this year. Oh, and I'm American, so some words might seem "wrong" to all you people from England. I try. Anyways...Happy Reading!**

Lily Evans breathed in the wonderful smells of different foods as she walked to the Great Hall. She had a long day full of exams and was starving-and it looked like some of her favorite foods were being served, including black beans and rice, wrapped up in a nice flower tortilla...delicious!

Lily was a gorgeous young woman with thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders and bright green and distinctive almond-shaped eyes. She wrapped her school robes tighter around her-it got very chilly in the stone corridors during the winter. As she stepped into the Great Hall, she scanned the Gryffindor table. She spotted her friends, Marlene McKinnon, Mary MacDonald, Alice Prewett, and Emmeline Vance, and started walking towards them. When she laid eyes on James Potter, her heart skipped a beat and her stomach fluttered. James was handsome, as well as tall and lean but muscular from many years of Quidditch. He had hazel eyes surrounded by round glasses and untidy black hair that stuck up at the back. James was sitting with the rest of the Marauders; Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Sirius was dashingly handsome, and had many girls of Hogwarts swooning at him and James. The difference was that Sirius had a new girlfriend every week, while James' heart was set after Lily. Remus was shorter than James and Sirius, with floppy golden brown hair and tired, gray, eyes. His face was slightly scarred from many years of being a werewolf. Peter was the shortest one of them, and had a slightly pudgy face and watery blue eyes. All of the Marauders excepting Remus were shoveling food into their mouths at alarming rates, whilst Remus, looking pale, groaned and poked at his own food with a fork. Then he dropped it and clutched his stomach, and groaned again, only louder.

"All right, Remus?" Lily asked, sitting down across from James and next to Mary and Alice.

"Maybe watching these pigs eat is making him sick," Marlene snickered. Marlene was a tall, blue-eyed blond with an I-don't-give-a-damn attitude.

James put down his fork, took a swig of pumpkin juice, and swallowed. When he smiled at Lily, she blushed all the way down to the roots of her hair and her stomach did that annoying fluttery thing again.

"Hey there, Lils," he said.

Then Remus moaned, and James jumped and started eating extremely fast again.

"You alright, mate?" Emmeline wanted to know. Emmeline was average-height, with short brown hair and green-and-brown eyes.

So did Lily, and then she remembered there was a full moon that night. _Duh!_ Lily scolded herself. She had figured out he was a werewolf in her fifth year.

"Here, drink some water, it'll make you feel better," Lily supplied.

Remus nodded weakly and proceeded to take a sip.

"I'm close," he croaked to James, Sirius, and Peter.

"Right, mate, let's get going," Sirius said. "Come on."

The four of them got up, and supported Remus as they walked out of the Great Hall. Lily could've sworn she saw Dumbledore nod at them, but she she wasn't positive.

"Where's that lot going?" Marlene demanded as the Marauders left the Great Hall.

"Leave them be, Mar, what they do is none of our business," Alice chided. "Besides, they're probably taking Remus to the Hospital Wing." Alice was a round-faced girl with brown hair chopped short and big blue eyes.

Marlene, Mary, and Emmeline seemed to accept this answer, but what they didn't notice was that the Hospital Wing was in the opposite direction that the Marauders had left through.

"Are you coming, Lily?" Mary asked Lily. They were the last people lingering in the Gryffindor Common Room, and Mary was ready to hit the sack. Mary had long, straight black hair that went wonderfully with her lovely sapphire eyes.

"Erm, no, I've got to...er, study. For transfiguration," Lily invented. She was actually waiting up for the Marauders, so that she could make sure that Remus was okay, but she wasn't about to tell Mary that.

"Okay, suit yourself. Good night," Mary said, already climbing the stairs leading to the Girls' dormitories.

As Lily watched the flames die down, hour by hour, she fretted constantly about Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. She knew that they could take care of themselves, but what if Remus accidentally hurt one of them? Gradually Lily fell into a light sleep despite her worrisome thoughts.

Lily was roused awake by the sound of the portrait door opening. Remus stumbled out first, and a wave of relief washed over Lily.

"Thank Merlin you're alright!" Lily exclaimed. Remus' head snapped up at the sound of her voice. He was covered in sweat and dirt, and something Lily suspected was blood, but otherwise he looked fine.

"Lily?" His voice was hoarse. "Why're you still awake?" There was suspicion laced into his tone, and some fear in his eyes.

"Remus," she said, walking over and placing her hand on his shoulder, "I know that you're a werewolf. I figured it out in fifth year."

"But...but...how are you still my friend?"

"You're a wonderful person, Remus! I could go on and on about all the good things that make who you are. The fact that you're a werewolf doesn't bother me a bit, and I'm not going to stop being your friend. Speaking of which, where are the rest of you-"

She was interrupted by a loud scuffling and Sirius' voice, which called out, "Remus, mate, could you give us a hand? He just passed out."

"Who passed out?" Lily demanded.

"Aw, Lils, why're you still awake? Its so late and-" Sirius came into view, just as beaten up as Remus.

"She knows," Remus cut him off. He blocked Lily's view as he went over to help Sirius. They laid down the unknown unconscious person on a couch, and Sirius whistled in awe.

"Would you look at that? He got beat up bad," he muttered. Lily knew, out of process of elimination, that that had to be either James or Peter. As she became engulfed in another wave of worry, Peter staggered into the room. Lily let out a squeak and ran over to the couch where James was laying. When she caught sight of him, she inhaled sharply and clapped her hands over her mouth.

James was indeed "beat up bad", as Sirius put it. He was covered in blood, sweat, dirt, and more blood. Too much blood. He had the beginnings of two black eyes, and he had a large cut over his right eyebrow. There were claw marks all over his face, as well as his arms. Lily brought herself out of her stupor and frantically busied herself. She took off his glasses and exclaimed, "Help me take off his shirt!"

"What, trying to make a move on James, now, Lily?" Sirius joked, but stopped when Lily glared at him with watery eyes, tears already threatening to fall.

"Please don't joke around, Sirius," Lily said, her voice cracking. He looked slightly frightened at her expression, but then jumped to help her and Remus.

Once James' shirt was eliminated, Lily saw the source of all the blood. A huge, bloody, gash started directly over his heart and ended on his right thigh. The edges of the wound were starting to turn black and blue, accumulating with all the other bruises that littered his torso. A tear slipped down Lily's cheek, and another, and another.

"Why didn't you take him directly to Pomfrey?!" She yelled through her tears. She jabbed an accusatory finger at Remus. "I thought you were the sensible one!"

Peter, who was standing, stunned, and watching the whole scene unravel, jumped in with his most soothing voice. "Its too far, Lily, you know that."

Lily did know that, but she didn't want to believe it. She was full on sobbing now. When James awoke just then, but Lily didn't notice and just cried harder. She fell to her knees besides James as he blinked slowly and tried to regain his thoughts. There was a blurry red blob in front of him-Lily! What was she doing here? And was she...crying? _I must be in worse shape than I thought..._

"Lily," he wheezed, "what are you doing here? Where am I? Oh, and could I get my glasses back?"

Lily jumped at the sound of his voice and stopped crying at once.

"Yes, yes, here they are..." Lily said as she handed him his glasses and wiped her eyes with her sleeves. He put them on but then regretted it; his eyes were extremely tender from the black eyes he sported. However, he couldn't see without them so he settled for perching them on the end of his nose. "We're in the Common Room," Lily continued. "How do you feel?"

"Like my body is on fire," James answered honestly. Lily's lower lip trembled as the waterworks started again.

"No, no, Lily, please don't cry," James pleaded, hating himself. "I'm fine. Really."

"No, you're not, so don't try to convince me otherwise. When Remus came in-"

"Remus? Where is he? Is he alright?" James asked, bolting up from where he lay. That was a huge mistake. His head spun so bad he almost blacked out again, and James felt as if someone had dipped a rusty axe in liquid nitrogen and salt and then ran it through his chest wound.

"Woah, there, Prongs, lie down," Sirius said, pushing James' shoulder back gently.

"I'm fine, by the way," Remus piped up. James sighed.

"Er, do you want me to, you know, clean these wound of yours?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that a lot. Thanks," James said.

"Okay, this is going to heal the majority of the gash, but there might be a scar..." Lily trailed off.

"That's fine. Perfect. I'll take anything."

"Alright. _Vulnera Sanetur_," Lily said clearly. _  
_

The healing spell hurt so much that James moaned loudly, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. _Deep breaths_, he thought in between the pain. _In. Out. In. Out._

"I'm sorry! I couldn't put a pain-killing spell first because then it wouldn't work, but I'll do it now, if you like," Lily rushed. James could only nod. "Alright. _Occidere Dolor_."

James exhaled in relief. The consuming pain he had been in was now replaced by a dull ache. "Lily," he said, closing his eyes to reduce the pain the bruises around his eyes were causing him, "you're amazing. You're a saint." He picked up her delicate hand and just held it. If he had kept his eyes open, he would have seen Lily blushing horribly. Remus and Sirius exchanged uncomfortable looks; Peter had long since left the room.

"Wait a minute! You've been bitten! So, are...are you all werewolves, too? But that doesn't make sense! How come Remus is the only one who gets sick on a full moon?"

James' eyes snapped open at Lily's accusatory tone.

"Erm, you know, I just remembered! I've got to, er, brush my teeth!" Sirius came up with a horrible excuse, but he didn't want to be there when Lily blew her top about the four of them being unregistered animagi.

"Er, I'll go help him!" Remus added, even though that didn't make any sense. He dashed up the boys' dorm stairs after Sirius. Neither Lily nor James noticed. The latter stared into Lily's beautiful-and now stormy-green eyes. "You're too smart for your own good, you know that?" He muttered.

"Don't you try to flatter me, Potter! Now tell me what's going on!" Her eyes flashed and her tone was dangerous.

"Alright, alright. You're going to take this horribly. Anyways, in third year we realized that animals don't transform into werewolves, only humans, so..."

"You became animagi! That's really advanced, James! I bet Dumbledore is thrilled that you can accompany Remus!" Lily beamed at him.

"Well, the thing is, Dumbledore doesn't know. Well, he knows everything, but we haven't told him," James added as an afterthought.

"Wait, so then, you're unregistered?" Lily asked dumbly. James nodded. When Lily opened her mouth, he shut his eyes, not wanting to be the unfortunate victim of one of Lily's shouting matches. But instead of getting yelled at, he was met with silence. Before he could think, soft lips were pressed against his. In his shock, he almost didn't react, but then he shook himself out of his stupor and kissed her back vigorously. When they came up for air, James sighed in contentment. "Wow," he breathed.

"Uh huh," was all Lily could think of to reply; her brain was too busy short-circuiting. She leaned down to kiss him again, and again, and again...

"Wait, er, I've got a question," Lily said breathlessly after their make-out session.

"Yes?"

"Er, what animal can you transform into?"

"A stag," was James's reply.

Lily sighed. "When you're healed, would you let me see you in your animal form?" Lily asked, almost shyly.

"I'd love to," James told her honestly. "But, er, I've got a question for you now, too."

"Yes?" Asked Lily.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Lily giggled, then said, "I'd love to."

And then she was kissing him again.

**So, what do you think? Kinda lame ending. Whatever, practice makes perfect, right? Please please please hit the review button! Constructive criticism is GREATLY appreciated! Thanks again to all you readers! I love you guys!**

**Peace out!**

**-moonracoon99**


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